Rocket Fuel Found in Baby Formula

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study in March 2009 that stated the government agency has discovered that traces of a chemical, perchlorate, which is also used in rocket fuel, were found in 15 different brands of powdered baby formulas.

Perchlorate can form naturally, mostly in areas with light rainfall, but it is most often created through manufacturing and is used in rocket fuel, explosives, and fireworks. There are currently 36 known U.S. states that contain facilities that use percholate as part of their manufacturing process. The amounts discovered in the baby formula were of abnormally high levels and could pose a potential threat to the children ingesting the formula. The threat is heightened if the powdered formula is mixed with water also contaminated with perchlorate, which has been found in the drinking water supplies of many U.S. cities and in the ground water of 43 states.

Though it has yet to be proven, scientists speculate that high levels of perchlorate can cause thyroid problems. In an adult, thyroid issues can interfere with metabolism, but in a child, thyroid problems can severely affect brain development.

The amount of percholate found in powdered infant formula are highest in those that are cow's milk based, and scientists are unsure of how, or if, these elevated amounts of the chemicals will affect children. Because the effects of percholate are countered by iodine, and baby formula is by law required to contain iodine, the hazards may be insignificant. Recent studies have also shown that percholate is neither stored in the body nor metabolized, which means that the risks posed by the chemical may cease or even reverse once percholate is removed from the body. The American Thyroid Association has also recently suggested that the chemical may not be as harmful to adults or children as previously suspected, though research has shown that percholate can greatly inhibit the body's absorption of iodine, even in what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined to be acceptable doses. In response to some studies of percholate in drinking and groundwater, the EPA is now considering altering the limits of allowable amounts of percholate, though some states have already chosen to impose their own.